Craig Connors

Craig Connors is currently VP and CTO for the Cisco Security Business Group, with a focus on driving security innovation since joining Cisco in 2023. Previously, Craig was with VMWare where he had multiple roles: as the VP and GM for the SASE Business, as the CTO for Service Provider and Edge BU, and as CTO for the SD-WAN and SASE at VMware. Craig also served as the Chief Architect for VMware’s SD-WAN, both before and after VMware’s acquisition of VeloCloud. Prior to VeloCloud, Craig had his first tenure with Cisco, working in the Corporate Development Technology Group's Advanced Development Team. Prior to his first tenure with Cisco, Craig spent time as a Principal Engineer and Software Development Manager for Talari Networks. His programming work prior to Talari Networks was centered in the online gaming space which is what led him to networking. Craig is a veteran of the United States Army and holds a BS in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. He has 19 issued patents in the networking and security domains.